FILE - In this July 31, 2008 file photo, Richard Barrett, a 65-year-old attorney and Nationalist Movement leader, tells The Associated Press during an interview in his Pearl, Mississippi, home, that he's convinced Democratic Barack Obama will win in November, and could set off a white backlash. Rankin County Sheriff Ronnie Pennington says Richard Barrett's body was found early Thursday April 22, 2010, after residents reported seeing smoke coming from his house near a suburb of Jackson, Miss. The 67-year-old Barrett had traveled the U.S. to promote anti-black and anti-immigrant views. He founded a supremacist group called the Nationalist Movement. less

FILE - In this July 31, 2008 file photo, Richard Barrett, a 65-year-old attorney and Nationalist Movement leader, tells The Associated Press during an interview in his Pearl, Mississippi, home, that he's ... more

Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP

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This is a Feb. 24, 2010 photograph released by the Mississippi Department of Corrections of Vincent McGee of Pearl, Miss., who is charged with the murder of Richard Barrett, a white supremacist lawyer who was found stabbed to death in his burning house inRankin County near Pearl, Miss., Thursday, April 22, 2010. Barrett, a New York City native and Vietnam War veteran, moved to Mississippi in 1966, and soon after, he began traveling the country to promote anti-black and anti-immigrant views, and foundeda supremacist group called the Nationalist Movement. McGee has been arrested and taken to the Rankin County jail in Brandon. As a MDOC inmate McGee was out of prison on earned release supervision granted in February, 2010. He lived with family in a home less

This is a Feb. 24, 2010 photograph released by the Mississippi Department of Corrections of Vincent McGee of Pearl, Miss., who is charged with the murder of Richard Barrett, a white supremacist lawyer who was ... more

Photo: Mississippi Dept Of Corrections, AP

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White supremacist fatally stabbed, beaten

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A white supremacist lawyer was stabbed and beaten to death by a black neighbor who had done yard work for him, police said Friday.

A preliminary autopsy showed Richard Barrett, 67, was stabbed multiple times in the neck and bashed in the head, Rankin County Sheriff Ronnie Pennington said. He had burns over 35 percent of his body, though investigators believe he was killed Wednesday night and his house set on fire Thursday to cover up his death.

Pennington did not disclose a motive but said neighbor Vincent McGee, 22, was charged with murder Thursday and deputies charged three other people in the case Friday. Albert Lewis, McGee's stepfather, was charged with being an accessory after the fact, while Vicky and Michael Dent, who live nearby, are charged with being accessories after the fact and arson.

Barrett traveled the country to promote anti-black and anti-immigrant views and founded a supremacist group called the Nationalist Movement.

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"Richard Barrett was a guy who ran around the country essentially pulling off publicity stunts," said Mark Potok, who monitors hate groups for the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center. "He really never amounted to any kind of leader in the white supremacist movement."

His body was found Thursday after neighbors saw smoke coming from his house in a rural area of Jackson.

The sheriff said McGee had not yet hired a lawyer and the suspect's mother had no comment when she went to the jail where her son was being held.

McGee was released from state prison in February after serving five years of a six-year sentence for simple assault on a police officer and grand larceny.

Barrett, a New York City native, moved to Mississippi in 1966, just before he founded the Nationalist Movement. He ran it from an office in the small town of Learned, about 20 miles southwest of Jackson, where he also ran a school for skinheads.